Now We’re Talkin’

From Kevin L. Dumas, Sisters

Do we want the government to decide which businesses will be allowed to participate in our marketplace and which ones will not? Is it the government’s role to obstruct the free market? Should the government suppress competition when it can be made to function?

No, our government’s primary role is to protect us so we can conduct business without fear or interference because it’s American capitalism that has produced unprecedented prosperity throughout the history of the world.

Limiting our choices in the marketplace and being forced to wait in long, slow-moving lines, smacks of socialism.

Granting the power to our government to choose which restaurants that will be allowed to participate in the marketplace of Sisters is elitism, pure and simple.

This governmental control lends itself to a risk of corruption. Besides, it’s impossible to determine the demand for the goods or services that will rise up in the future.

Perhaps, the existing legal rules are not wholly free of defect, however, creating a ban on “formula food” restaurants would be foolish and shortsighted.

We should plan for competition, not stifle it; making competition as effective and beneficial as possible while limiting government’s coercive interference with economic life.

This generates higher profits, resulting in an increase of revenue for government at all levels. The more wealth in existence, the more we all benefit.

As I see it, the city planner’s role is to determine the best possible use of the force of competition.

This economic competition is as American as mom and apple pie and is our truest expression of a democracy.

So, I say YES to a free-market economy for Sisters along with preserving our freedom to pursue happiness. Sisters should welcome any business that contributes to it’s vibrant, dynamic and (we hope, if left untethered) thriving marketplace.